On July 27, the Palestinian Ministry of Schooling launched the outcomes of the secondary training certificates exams, also called tawjihi. Like yearly, households sat collectively, eyes mounted on cellphone screens, hearts pounding, everybody hoping to be the primary to entry the ministry’s web site and break the information with a jubilant shout. There have been joyful tears and celebrations.
Hundreds of scholars, who had endured months of strain, sleepless nights and fragile hope, had the examination ends in their palms that might decide whether or not and the place they may proceed their training.
However hundreds of others – these in Gaza – have been sitting of their tents and ruined houses in despair. I’m one in all them. That is the second 12 months I, together with 31,000 different Palestinians born in 2006, was unable to take the tawjihi. For one more 12 months, we’ve been stripped of our proper to proceed our training and of the hope to construct a future past the ruins. Now, we’re joined by virtually 40,000 college students born in 2007, who’re additionally caught on this dreadful limbo.
Final 12 months, when the tawjihi outcomes have been introduced, I used to be huddled in entrance of a crackling fireplace close to a tattered tent, far too small to carry my massive desires. The deep frustration I felt didn’t fade – it settled in my thoughts and stayed. All I might take into consideration was how all my sacrifices, tears, and relentless effort throughout a full 12 months of learning underneath tough circumstances had been for nothing.
This 12 months, it feels even worse. Not solely are my desires of training crushed, now I battle to maintain myself and my household alive, as Gaza is ravenous to loss of life.
In these two years, I’ve watched our training system destroyed, classroom by classroom. My college, Shohada al-Nusierat, as soon as a spot of studying and desires, first turned a shelter housing displaced households after which a goal for Israeli bombing. My schoolbag – as soon as crammed with notebooks and examine supplies – now carries important paperwork and a change of garments, all the time packed and prepared in case we’re compelled to flee our dwelling once more. The educational calendar, with all its necessary dates, has been changed by a grim schedule of air strikes, displacement, and lack of pals and family members.
Amid this devastation, the Schooling Ministry has struggled to maintain an academic course of going. Wanting to offer Gaza’s kids and youth hope, it has undertaken numerous initiatives to attempt to maintain college students motivated. Makeshift faculties have been organised wherever attainable, whereas some college college students have been capable of proceed their training on-line.
For us, the tawjihi college students, efforts have been repeatedly made to arrange our exams. Final 12 months, the ministry introduced it will conduct the exams in February. I stored learning, regardless of the cruel actuality and the collapse of every thing round me, believing this was my likelihood to maneuver ahead.
February handed, and nothing occurred. The ministry then introduced that the exams can be held in April. However as soon as once more, they have been postponed as a result of unsafe situations. Then, in June, the ministry scheduled an internet examination for July for college students born in 2005 who had both failed their tawjihi or missed a few of its exams; they have been imagined to have accomplished this examination in December 2023. Some 1,500 college students have been capable of take the checks on-line.
This gave me a little bit of hope that my flip would additionally come, however that shortly pale. The Ministry of Schooling hasn’t given us any updates on the method, and it appears like we’ve been utterly forgotten within the shadow of warfare and hunger.
Some readers might ask themselves, why amid a genocide are Palestinians so preoccupied with an examination?
You need to perceive, tawjihi is a milestone in each Palestinian’s life – a decisive second that shapes future paths for not less than the subsequent 5 years. It determines whether or not we will pursue our training within the area we want and achieve admission to prime universities.
However past lecturers, tawjihi carries a a lot deeper cultural and emotional weight. It’s not simply an academic section – it’s a part of our id, a logo of perseverance. In a spot the place the occupation closes practically each door, training is ready to maintain a couple of doorways nonetheless open.
That’s why we rejoice it like a nationwide vacation; the day tawjihi outcomes are launched appears like a 3rd Eid for Palestinians. It provides households hope, brings delight to complete neighbourhoods, and retains alive the dream of a greater future.
Over the numerous months I waited for the tawjihi, I held on to my dream to check medication at a prestigious college overseas. I stored making use of for scholarships and sending emails to universities throughout the USA, the UK and Europe, hoping for particular consideration as a pupil affected by warfare. I pleaded with college directors to waive the tawjihi certificates requirement.
However the responses have been painfully constant: “Sadly, we can not contemplate your utility until you present your remaining diploma.”
In the present day, despair and helplessness will not be the one undesirable guests I’ve. Starvation is one other one. The hunger has destroyed not solely my physique but additionally my psychological well being.
Most days, we handle to have one meal. We survive totally on canned beans, dry bread, or rice with none greens or protein. Our our bodies are weak, our faces pale, and our vitality virtually nonexistent. The results transcend the bodily. Starvation fogs the mind, dulls reminiscence and crushes motivation. It turns into practically not possible to focus, not to mention examine for a life-changing examination just like the tawjihi. How can I put together for an important examination of my life when my abdomen is empty and my thoughts clouded by fatigue and fear?
It feels as if my youth has been stolen earlier than my eyes, and I can do nothing however watch. Whereas my friends around the globe are constructing their futures, I stay caught in a spot of overwhelming ache and loss.
As a tawjihi pupil trapped in a warzone, I urgently name on academic authorities and worldwide establishments to step in and implement fast options to make sure our proper to training shouldn’t be buried underneath the rubble of warfare.
We’re not asking for a lot. Giving us an opportunity to complete our secondary training in Gaza is not only a matter of logistics, however a matter of justice and future survival.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
